On 23 March, a gale blew the Ever Given, a giant container ship about the size of the Empire State Building in New York, sideways, right into the Suez Canal, completely blocking the fastest route from Asia to Europe for six days and costing international trade about US$400 million per hour.
March 29, 2021 - Evergreen Line is pleased to confirm that EVER GIVEN has been successfully refloated within the Suez Canal at approximately 15:04 March 29 local time (21:04 Taipei time). In order for the Canal to resume normal operation, the vessel is leaving the grounding site with assistance of tugboats.
The chartered vessel will be repositioned to the Great Bitter Lake in the Canal for an inspection of its seaworthiness. The outcome of that inspection will determine whether the ship can resume its scheduled service. Once the inspection is finalized, decisions will be made regarding arrangements for cargo currently on board.
This also means that although the Suez Canal has resumed navigation, Ever Given's problems are not over. Foreign traders who have cargo on board this ship still have to go through an anxiety-inducing wait.
According to vessel finder's real-time check of the ship's position, it can be seen that Ever Given has now been towed to the lake and there are already numerous ships lined up for passage in the Suez Canal.
For those in need, the latest location status can be found here.
What is known is that Ever Given's hull was solid during the grounding, the bow was damaged and sea water flooded into both compartments. However, the containers are most likely to be OK.
The ship's technical management company, Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement (Germany), also said in an announcement, "There are no reports of pollution or damage to the cargo."
Bulletin address.
https://www.bs-shipmanagement.com/en/media/1-media-statement
Well, the biggest problem faced by foreign traders who have goods on Ever Given at present is the delay in the cargo schedule and the insurance problem.
According to the big ship schedule, Ever Given sailed from Kaohsiung port on 22 February and has called at Qingdao, Shanghai, Ningbo, Taipei and Yantian ports, arriving at Suez Canal on 23 March and is scheduled to arrive at Rotterdam on 1 April. This service is a common class for Ocean Alliance, involving COSCO Shipping, Duffy and OOCL.
Ever Given has a full cargo capacity of 20,000 containers, while this time it is carrying 18,300 containers, which is close to full capacity and so exacerbates the difficulty of the rescue. It also meant that a large number of Chinese exporters faced unavoidable delays in their shipments.
Quite complex compensation would then be involved.
Industry sources say owners and charterers of delayed vessels will face at least US$24 million in unrecoverable costs because their policies do not cover them, while cargo owners could also face losses not covered by insurance.
Cargo owners on Ever Given
Marine All Risks Insurance is for loss of or damage to cargo, please note: All Risks Insurance cannot compensate for delays!
According to insurance sources, 90% of the goods delayed in this incident were not covered by delay insurance, which means that they cannot be compensated for this.
So what should the cargo onwer do?
Firstly, contact your freight forwarder immediately, keep the information in communication, pay attention to the subsequent sailing plan of the vessel and keep an eye on the time of arrival of the vessel at the port of destination.
Secondly, keep in touch with the customer, reassure the customer and try to gain understanding. If the customer clearly indicates that he will refuse to accept the goods because of the delay, please contact the insurance company immediately if you have bought insurance.If you are not insured, contact your supplier and tell them that you don't want the goods and that you are giving them abandonment papers so that they can find a way to return the goods or resell them.
Thirdly, pay attention to the strict inspection of the goods after they arrive at the port of destination, and give feedback in time to your supplier if there are any problems.
Fourthly, pay close attention to whether the shipowner will declare a common sea loss, once declared, then immediately let your supplier to contact the marine insurance company to provide a common sea loss guarantee.
This time must not stay away, waiting for things to develop, must maintain close contact with freight forwarders, customers, sometimes, things are in the hands of people, attitude determines everything!
Foreign trade people who will be shipping to Europe in the near future
Recently, I have also read a lot of news about the Suez Canal blockage causing oil and toilet paper prices to rise. In fact, a short-term blockage causing a delay of a week or so will not have a particularly big impact on the price of raw materials.
Rather, the de-clogging of the canal will put new pressure on the already congested major ports as container ships arrive intensively at their European destinations. And it is not only the ports, but also the truck and train transport channels in the supply chain that will be under pressure, and freight rates are likely to be added to the fire.
This year's foreign trade shipments is really too difficult!